A major national credit ratings service on Wednesday declared Mammoth â€śstable,â€ť lifting the town from the dregs of a â€śhighly vulnerableâ€ť credit rating in the wake of settling its legal battle against Mammoth Lakes Land Acquisition (MLLA).

Assistant Town Manager Marianna Marysheva-Martinez delivered the news to the Town Council at its meeting Wednesday evening, just hours after Standard & Poorâ€™s Rating Services raised Mammoth from a â€śCâ€ť rating to â€śBB+.â€ť

Standard & Poorâ€™s (S&P) is one of three credit agencies that measure credit risk by governments. The two others are Fitch and Moodyâ€™s. Mammoth has always used the S&P rating for its debt ratings.

Marysheva-Martinez said the timing of the new rating caught her a bit by surpriseâ€”that she and Town Manager Dave Wilbrecht had not expected a new rating until mid-January or February.

With a better bond rating, she said afterward, the town is likely to re-finance the MLLA settlement arrangement by shortening the length of the payback from its current 23-year schedule.

The townâ€™s $2 million-a-year payment schedule already is figured into the townâ€™s long-term budget forecasts, and she said she saw no reason to change that part of the payment configuration yet.

Marysheva-Martinez spearheaded the town cuts in the 2011-12 â€śshortfall budget,â€ť then led the effort to restructure the town government in the wake of the MLLA settlement.

The restructuring measure passed the council Dec. 5.

Marysheva-Martinez explained the implications of the new S&P rating by comparing it to a credit score that any individual receives.

â€śA credit score should be relatively high,â€ť she explained, â€śbecause it will affect the amount of interest you pay on such things as credit cards, a car loan, or a mortgage. The lower the credit rating, the more you pay.â€ť

In terms of Mammoth, the cost of its $23 million payment to MLLA currently is set at 5.17 percent over 23 years.

The way this kind of thing comes into play is if the town wants or needs credit for a major purchase.
When the town financed a loan for the purchase of the Bell-Shaped Parcel at Minaret Road and Meridian Blvd., it did so by earning a high credit rating from S&P.

The S&P report effectively endorsed the townâ€™s restructuring, which drastically cut police services and public works, and it took heavily into account Mammothâ€™s withdrawal from Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy proceedings.

â€śIn our opinion, while Mammoth Lakes filed for Chapter 9 in July 2012, its withdrawal of the petition and the town councilâ€™s recently adopted multi-year budget restructuring plan to accommodate the settlement payments somewhat mitigate our concern about the townâ€™s future willingness to pay debt service.â€ť

The S&P report said it also based its opinion on the upgraded credit status because of councilâ€™s adoption of the bare-bones budget.

â€śWe believe if implemented, [the restructure effort] could restore structural balance to the general fund in the next two years and eventually build general fund reserve levels to slightly higher levels.â€ť

The report also took into account â€śwhat we consider good-to-strong income levels.â€ť